I knew this set would have lots of cool tech for my Welder's Workshop cube, since it's centered around Vehicles and takes place partly on Amonkhet. That gives us a lot of room for cool artifacts, graveyard synergies, and tokens. Cube is really a gift when a set like DFT appears, because I can throw all the Mario Kart stuff into the oubliette and just play with the cards that seem like they could actually be "spells cast by a wizard" (who is, in this case, some kind of technomancer). Some of the really out-there flavor, like the Guidelight robots or the Mad Max monster trucks, actually fits perfectly well into this environment, which has always been heavy on the magitek stuff.
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Parhelion II
Parhelion II is a cool card but I have more accessible ways to create big tokens now, and I honestly don't think it was ever a tempting enough welding/cheating/ramping target. The cube just has more fun/powerful things to do instead. Meanwhile, Salvation Engine keeps the Vehicle density while playing around in the reanimator space, and you might actually be able to cast it. Plus: cool name.
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Malcator's Watcher
Malcator's Watcher is mostly here to hit artifact density in blue 2-drops, and I like that it has a death trigger. I think Diversion Unit is cooler overall, and they can hang out with their buddy
Malevolent Hermit.
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The Everflowing Well
I'll be straight with y'all: there are too many blue 3-drop artifacts in this cube. But they keep making more, and each one is even more tempting than the last. Repurposing Bay is one of those cards that would have been in my first draft of this cube if it already existed five years ago, and it would never get cut. It's basically a card which lives the central thesis of the design. So, it's going in, and The Everflowing Well is coming out because it's legendary (and I don't like that in my artifacts), it's double-faced (so cutting it represents a complexity budget savings), and because the other cards in this category are too cool to get cut.
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Kindly Cognician
If I could only include a single card from DFT in the cube, this would be the one. What a cool and fun way to fill the graveyard! Very cool bird-mummy flavor. And it lets me diversify the themes in my blue 2-drop creatures section, which is heavily loaded for artifacts and doesn't synergize as much with the other stuff in the cube. This guy has it all.
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The Grim Captain's Locker
These are two very similar cards, and it's a close contest, but Cursecloth Wrappings wins just because Embalm is more fun than Escape in this environment. I'll miss the Surveil ability on the Locker, and I firmly expect players to forget about the Zombie text on Cursecloth Wrappings, but that's a chance I'm willing to take for more Embalm. Plus the art is really cool, obviously.
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Akki Scrapchomper
This card lets me diversify the mechanics in my red one-drop section, and it also lets me play a sharkman, which is one of my preferred categories of anthropomorphic fantasy hybrid guy. Can you imagine going
Marauding Mako >
Cathartic Reunion >
Glint-Horn Buccaneer? What a fun time that would be.
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Vindictive Flamestoker
Greasewrench Goblin's ability is weaker than Vindictive Flamestoker's, but just look how much less text she's got! No extraneous "noncreature spell" synergy signals! No obnoxious oil counters! Also, I prefer the flavor of this card. A great workshop assistant for
Goblin Engineer. This is one of those cases where a power downgrade represents an environmental upgrade.
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Sokenzan Smelter
Another card with flavor I really love. Insane mechanically-inclined goblins are a big part of this cube's identity. It's literally named after a
Goblin Welder, after all. This is also a great way for red to make a big token, and I like big tokens for Populate effects. I want more Populate effects!
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Mizzium Tank
Mizzium Tank has been coasting along for a while on the virtue of its cool Wayne Reynolds art and its contribution to Vehicle/artifact density. But this weird Twisted Metal truck has way more real synergy with the cube. I feel like if you see this card in your first pack, you immediately understand what the cube is all about.
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Perilous Myr
This set actually has a great set of hits in the colorless artifact section, where there are a lot of cards cruising along without any reason to be in the cube besides "there should be a lot of colorless artifacts." Perilous Myr has a fun death trigger, making it a great sacrifice target, but Marketback Walker is just as good (better, actually) and has more flexibility. This is definitely a complexity budget expense, but I think it's worth it. This reminds me: I need to get a copy of
Walking Ballista, too.
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Treasure Chest
These cards are doing a lot of the same work, but one of them is doing it more beautifully. Monument to Endurance is just the kind of engine piece I love the most. Wow, can you imagine casting a big
Occult Epiphany right after this? Cool!
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Spare Supplies
The colorless two-drop artifact portion of this cube plays a vital role in smoothing out the mana curve in a commander-inspired environment with too many 4 and 5 mana do-nothing durdle-machine cards. Spare Supplies is here for density's sake, and it seems obvious that Adaptive Omnitool is cooler than that. This reminds me: I
really want to cut
Eater of Virtue, and with the Omnitool, I could cut it for a non-Equipment card without hurting Equipment density. Maybe a good cut for
Walking Ballista? *tinkering sounds intensify*
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Dutiful Replicator
Absolute windmill-slam, straight into the cube, no questions asked. Likely to stay in here for the next decade. I like Dutiful Replicator, but it always bothered me that it's secretly a 4-drop and not a 3-drop.
Cogwork Assembler was also at risk here, but I like it as a live-the-dream mana sink for a ramp deck.
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Clay Champion
I knew I was making this switch from the first taste of the first look. Talk about a great card for building a weird board state. And I like how its mana cost isn't a secret. You want to play this? You're in Selesnya now, dogg. Get yourself an
Esper Sentinel. Get yourself an
Instrument of the Bards. Maybe even get yourself a
Walking Ballista, if it's in the cube yet.
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Decadent Dragon
This one is kind of tough, simply because I adore Decadent Dragon. But the Gearhulk is just too awesome, and it's nice to get a really good, big bastard of an artifact creature in Rakdos. I was running a Universes Restored version of
Helbrute for a while, but this is more magical.
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Ravenous Tyrannosaurus
The Gruul section of this cube has been through a huge number of changes since the first draft, but it's mostly graveyard synergies. It'll be nice to put a direct artifact-synergy piece in here, even if the synergy is only on the type line. But wait. What's this!? A Universes Beyond card hanging around the mainboard of my cube? "But, Mr. Adventurer! I thought you hated crossover-IP nostalgia-bait advertising slop! You hate it so much you made a bunch of re-worked cards in a fit of ludonarrative agony, and now, it turns out you've got a Jurassic Park card sitting here, unaltered, in your mainboard!?" People, I'm not made of stone. This is the T-Rex from Jurassic Park at her moment of triumph! The most iconic moment in 90's cinema, rivalled only by the rooftop bullet-dodging sequence in The Matrix. Plus: dinosaurs are canon in Magic! Anyway, my precious prehistoric reptile is going to have to find her new home in a commander deck or something, because this slot belongs to a big artifact creature now.
There were actually so many good cards in this set that I couldn't find room for all of them. Probably the most obvious examples are
Thopter Fabricator and
Cryptcaller Chariot Both these cards are obviously awesome, but they are sitting at very competitive spots on the mana curve in their colors. It's getting hard to find room! One way I'm addressing this is cutting back my updates to twice a year. A lot of the changes I listed in this post probably won't even take place until July or August. There are just so many cards coming out, even stuff that's pretty much perfect for Welder's Workshop can't always find a way inside. The funniest card that didn't make the cut?
Riptide Gearhulk, which joins the growing list of powerful creatures that couldn't beat
Glassdust Hulk. This draft common is just too appealing with its "play artifacts, kill opponents" ability and its lovely "please reanimate me" one-mana cycling. Tough luck for the pushed mythic, lol.
